27 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 132 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Call Silencer
Re: Call Silencer
Re: Call Silencer
Verizon selling off phone lines
Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
update on the "warranty" robocalls
Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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against crime. Geoffrey Welsh
===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 19:27:17 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Call Silencer
Message-ID: <bkLOl.29977$YU2.16761@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>
Does anyone know about this product. My old CID box I got 10 years ago
from Radio Shack is starting to fail. This one claims it train by
itself buy detecting if you answer the phone or not, but no out going
message, just not ringing phone.
http://www.callsilencer.com/
***** Moderator's Note *****
Steven,
Please contact me offline.
Bill at horne dot net.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 06:33:06 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Call Silencer
Message-ID: <n4VOl.41507$Rf7.20503@newsfe21.iad>
Steven Lichter wrote:
> Does anyone know about this product. My old CID box I got 10 years ago
> from Radio Shack is starting to fail. This one claims it train by
> itself buy detecting if you answer the phone or not, but no out going
> message, just not ringing phone.
>
>
> http://www.callsilencer.com/
>
Don't know anything about it, but I suspect it doesn't do a great job.
If you are in an AT&T service area, the network based Privacy Manager,
used in conjunction with network based voice mail, does a fantastic job.
The pests that do get through because they have caller id are left to go
to my Meridian 9516's mail box. The identified pests almost never leave
a message.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 15:14:35 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Call Silencer
Message-ID: <LF0Pl.7092$Lr6.6429@flpi143.ffdc.sbc.com>
Sam Spade wrote:
> Steven Lichter wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know about this product. My old CID box I got 10 years ago
>> from Radio Shack is starting to fail. This one claims it train by
>> itself buy detecting if you answer the phone or not, but no out going
>> message, just not ringing phone.
>>
>>
>> http://www.callsilencer.com/
>>
>
> Don't know anything about it, but I suspect it doesn't do a great job.
> If you are in an AT&T service area, the network based Privacy Manager,
> used in conjunction with network based voice mail, does a fantastic job.
>
> The pests that do get through because they have caller id are left to go
> to my Meridian 9516's mail box. The identified pests almost never leave
> a message.
>
I have the Privacy Manager and it works pretty good, but I want to be
able to block some numbers; that is what i like about the Radio Shack
CID box. It looks like the until works on what calls you answer but
with a Voice Mail system I have it might treat it like a good call. I
bought several of those CID boxes when they were closing them out.
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 06:53:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <e03e27fd-f2e0-4e92-9e14-90733cec1135@s16g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>
There was an article that Verizon is selling off some of its landline
territories to Frontier. (Unfortunately I lost the URL). From the
states mentioned, these appear to be those it acquired when it bought
GTE.
I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'm going to see where those areas are, and apply to Frontier: I guess
everybody moves South or West, sooner or later, and it's getting
really hard to be a sole proprietor.
I don't know why Verizon bought GTE: maybe they needed the Strowger
pattents. ;-)
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 15:27:46 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <7S0Pl.7093$Lr6.6268@flpi143.ffdc.sbc.com>
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> There was an article that Verizon is selling off some of its landline
> territories to Frontier. (Unfortunately I lost the URL). From the
> states mentioned, these appear to be those it acquired when it bought
> GTE.
>
> I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I'm going to see where those areas are, and apply to Frontier: I guess
> everybody moves South or West, sooner or later, and it's getting
> really hard to be a sole proprietor.
>
> I don't know why Verizon bought GTE: maybe they needed the Strowger
> pattents. ;-)
>
> Bill Horne
> Temporary Moderator
All of the states that they are selling, except for the Carolinas, are
all GTE service areas. They are keeping California. I retired in
1996 from GTE and in 2000 when merged I know myself and others could
never understand the merger since they operated very differently.
I do contract work for them at times and have seen many changes. With
GTE almost everything was done in house and that included its own CO
Construction forces which I was part of. Now they just have a few and
those for the most part just make sure contractors don't burn the
buildings down. I was sent to Washington state and my job was to
train 18 year old CO Installers right out of school: they gave me 30
days to do it, [but] I explained it took 3 to 7 years. These were
Verizon people, I got a couple of them up and running to the point
that they could read what they needed, and went on my way.
When _I_ started I was not allowed near powered equipment for a year.
The news was on AP's web page, here is a link from Verizon.
http://investor.verizon.com/news/view.aspx?NewsID=987
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 23:07:22 GMT
From: Eric Tappert <e.tappert.spamnot@worldnet.att.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <kv8p055khecij2gsseloo0fa7dieb4nor9@4ax.com>
On Thu, 14 May 2009 17:49:03 -0400 (EDT), hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>There was an article that Verizon is selling off some of its landline
>territories to Frontier. (Unfortunately I lost the URL). From the
>states mentioned, these appear to be those it acquired when it bought
>GTE.
>
>I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
>
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>
>I'm going to see where those areas are, and apply to Frontier: I guess
>everybody moves South or West, sooner or later, and it's getting
>really hard to be a sole proprietor.
>
>I don't know why Verizon bought GTE: maybe they needed the Strowger
>pattents. ;-)
>
>Bill Horne
>Temporary Moderator
Here's Verizon's Press release.
http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2009/verizon-to-divest-wireline.html
E. Tappert
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 20:43:01 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <6645152a0905141843q19c60ee6r66f31f018c5a827a@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 8:53 AM, <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>
> I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
>
I thought Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to form Verizon?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTE#Merger_with_Bell_Atlantic
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 20:20:54 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <sc5Pl.30057$YU2.5311@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>
John Mayson wrote:
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 8:53 AM, <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>> I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
>>
>
> I thought Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to form Verizon?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTE#Merger_with_Bell_Atlantic
That is what was said, but in fact the company that came out of it was
more Bell Atlantic than GTE, and from what I remember [of] the way
they ran things it [was] more Bell that GTE. In some areas nothing
has changed much because old GTE managers are in place like
California, and that includes the Company President; but then the GTE
company in California was always run differently. We had our own
construction forces as well [for] just about anything we did, [and]
very rarely did they contractp [outside companies] until we started
converting to full Electronic, [and] then contractors were needed to
remove the old offices: my last few years was making sure that it was
done right.
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 22:50:40 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Verizon selling off phone lines
Message-ID: <6645152a0905142050m70feb103h9ac84168879b337@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 10:20 PM, Steven Lichter
<diespammers@ikillspammers.com> wrote:
> John Mayson wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Â <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I always wondered why Verizon bought out GTE in the first place.
>>>
>>
>> I thought Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to form Verizon?
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTE#Merger_with_Bell_Atlantic
>
> That is what was said, but in fact the company that came out of it was
> more Bell Atlantic than GTE, and from what I remember [of] the way
> they ran things it [was] more Bell that GTE.
My dad was former GTE (former as of 1991). He said the same thing.
Technically it was a merger, but it was pretty much Bell Atlantic
swallowing GTE.
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 16:25:31 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: update on the "warranty" robocalls
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0905141624350.2281@panix5.panix.com>
Well, the FTC didn't listen to me. Nor to gazillions
of complaints people made. But a week after Sen. Schumer
called them up...
-------
[from the FTC web page]
For Release: 05/14/2009
FTC Files Suit to Stop Illegal Robocalls Pushing Vehicle Warranty
Extensions
Companies Charged With Making Hundreds of Millions of Deceptive Calls to
Consumers
The Federal Trade Commission is asking a federal court to shut down a
telemarketing campaign that has been bombarding U.S. consumers with
hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive "robocalls" in an effort to
sell them vehicle service contracts under the guise that they are
extensions of original vehicle warranties.
In two related complaints filed in federal court, the Commission took
action against both the promoter of the phony extended auto warranties, as
well as the telemarketing company that it hired to carry out its illegal,
deceptive campaign. In its complaints, the agency contends that the
companies are operating a massive telemarketing scheme that uses random,
pre-recorded phone calls to deceive consumers into thinking that their
vehicle's warranty is about to expire...
rest:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/05/robocalls.shtm
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 16:58:38 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Message-ID: <MPG.2476500babd415f1989a10@reader.motzarella.org>
In article <MPG.246ee2b6f4bf61f2989a0b@reader.motzarella.org>,
kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net says...
>
> In article <gu1dc4$1ti$1@panix2.panix.com>, kludge@panix.com says...
> >
> > Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >Given the cost of Heliax, and the losses of generic coax at 70cm, is
> > >it possible/advisable to homebrew waveguide? A previous post mentioned
> > >circular waveguide, and I wonder if I could feed 70cm or 23cm antennas
> > >with waveguide made from copper pipe.
> >
> > You could, but copper pipe is very expensive. It's cheaper to move the
> > transceiver up closer to the antenna in most cases today.
> >
> > I'm not sure where the price breakeven point between hardline and waveguide
> > is. You look at all those 2GHz Bell microwave towers with the cornucopia
> > antennae, and you see waveguides coming down from all of them. These days
> > that would all be done very differently.
> > --scott
>
> Back a couple years ago I worked for the Sec. State's office. We had
> three locations in the city of Providence.
>
> The Admin Director asked how we could cut costs on the VAN circuits we
> employed.
>
> I mentioned that the clock tower at the facility we were in had line of
> sight to the State House and the State House had line of sight to our
> other location in downtown Providence. Proposed an 802.11 based system.
>
> The State House was the sticky wicket. I explained we'd have to run
> fiber from the 2nd floor to the top of the dome along with power so that
> the transcievers could be near the dish, actually Yagi's would have
> worked too but a little harder to conceal.
>
> Did out the costing and then submitted it. It never came to fruition.
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> That's surprising: these days, every government-owned structure that
> offers more than ten feet of HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain) is
> festooned with antennas from every cellular provider, every paging,
> and every trunked repeater service - sometimes even, believe it or
> not, antennas for government use!
>
> Bill Horne
> Temporary Moderator
No antennas on this building. I jokingly said we could hand a small
dish off the Indpendent Man's spear.
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/73/38273-004-0D86EB1D.jpg
The Independent Man (Stands about 17' tall and is perched on top of
the central dome of the State House.
http://www.statecapitols.tigerleaf.com/images/RI-statue2-maynard.jpg
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 18:25:39 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <MPG.2476646e7778c6c1989a11@reader.motzarella.org>
In article <c74.4ecffdbb.373779df@aol.com>, Wesrock@aol.com says...
>
> In a message dated 5/9/2009 8:54:13 AM Central Daylight Time, jt@jt-mj.net
> writes:
>
> > IIRC ESS1 (Morris Ill.) had minimal batteries, and a system that was
> > supposed to start the diesels within 1/3 sec after a primary power
> > failure.
>
> Several seconds--maybe a minute or more--are required for sirens or
> horns to notify persons near a generator that it is getting ready to
> autostart. No way it could start in 1/3 sec.
>
> Wes Leatherock
> wesrock@aol.com
> wleathus@yahoo.com
The 125kW generator we used to power the I.T. infastructure (Server room
and entire I.T. space) would spin up withing 10 seconds. No sirens, no
horns. Just a brief flash as the overhead lights went to generator
power.
The server room itself had an APC Symmetra to keep power up while the
generator spun up.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 20:29:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Julian Thomas" <jt@jt-mj.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <100.48c407005cb70c4a.010@jt-mj.net>
On Sun, 10 May 2009 19:26:02 -0700 (PDT) hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
>
>Again, I respectfully disagree. As I recall the history, "a few years
>before Morris went live" there wasn't much of anything, just designs
>on paper. I'd have to check the Bell Labs history. Once again,
>Morris was _not_ a production installation, but a special test site.
>They knew at the onset the hardware would not be used in production;
>it was more of testing the concept of stored program control.
I was there (BTL) for a few months in 1954.
>
>Once again, in electronic terms, 1/3 of a second is a very long time,
Yes, but a lot of capacitance or a small battery might have been
contemplated.
--
Julian Thomas: jt@jt-mj.net http://jt-mj.net
In the beautiful Genesee Valley of Western New York State!
-- --
... File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 23:20:07 -0400
From: Bill Horne <billQRM@horneQRM.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <20090515032007.GG20758@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Sat, May 09, 2009 at 08:29:19PM -0400, Wesrock@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 5/9/2009 8:54:13 AM Central Daylight Time, jt@jt-mj.net
> writes:
>
> > IIRC ESS1 (Morris Ill.) had minimal batteries, and a system that was
> > supposed to start the diesels within 1/3 sec after a primary power
> > failure.
>
> Several seconds--maybe a minute or more--are required for sirens or
> horns to notify persons near a generator that it is getting ready to
> autostart. No way it could start in 1/3 sec.
>
> Wes Leatherock
> wesrock@aol.com
> wleathus@yahoo.com
Times have certainly changed: when I was on working Toll Test, on the
night shift at Back Bay in 1973, the turbine came on every Wednesday
night, just like clockwork, and no alarms or horns or other warnings
were ever sounded. The turbine was in the area next to the Toll frame
and testboards, separated by only a standard set of double-doors, and
the unit at Back Bay was rated for 500KW.
After the first couple of times, when I and my teammate went home with
our ears ringing, we would call the night forman and tell him we were
retreating to another floor: we'd do what work we could at the MDF,
but we refused to work with the generator running next to us, and our
boss never said anything about it.
Bill Horne
(Filter QRM from my address for direct replies.)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 20:25:36 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <Rg5Pl.30058$YU2.14535@nlpi066.nbdc.sbc.com>
Bill Horne wrote:
> ... we refused to work with the generator running next to us, and
> our boss never said anything about it.
They were too cheap to buy ear protection?
--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 22:56:57 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <6645152a0905142056t4c44b1f5reecc7f98c95477ea@mail.gmail.com>
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 10:25 PM, Steven Lichter
<diespammers@ikillspammers.com> wrote:
> Bill Horne wrote:
>
>> ... we refused to work with the generator running next to us, and
>> our boss never said anything about it.
>
> They were too cheap to buy ear protection?
I worked for a non-telco employer in Florida. Our tester required a
vacuum pump which they placed right next to the tester instead of the
machine room to save on installation costs. It was LOUD. We demanded
our safety department come out. It was the nurse who came out and
said she measured the volume level and it was within OSHA guidelines.
We all brought in our own hearing protection paid for with our own
money and were told we were forbidden from wearing it because it would
imply the volume levels were dangerous when they weren't. IIRC it was
merely 1 or 2 dB away from requiring hearing protection.
I ended up having a dumb terminal (remember those?) installed in my
office and only worked in the lab when absolutely necessary.
John
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 23:56:59 -0400
From: Bill Horne <billQRM@horneQRM.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: CO backup power (was Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <20090515035659.GD21974@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 08:25:36PM -0700, Steven Lichter wrote:
> Bill Horne wrote:
>
> >... we refused to work with the generator running next to us, and
> >our boss never said anything about it.
>
> They were too cheap to buy ear protection?
That's a more complicated question than you'd think: New England
Telephone was never big on that, and I never figured out why. As a
pilot, I had access to noise-cancelling neadsets and to ordinary ear
protectors, both considered essential for pilots, but I didn't use
them on the job because there was a very pronounced "everyone or
noone" attitude among we union men. Not even the power room techs,
who worked on the generators for hours at a time, had hearing
protection provided to them.
Bill Horne
(Filter QRM from my address for direct replies.)
------------------------------
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